Khor
The Khor inhabit a vast mountain complex on the scorched-desert face of Wreel. The religious elite and their fundamentalist herd occupy the sacred mountain while the scientific and intellectual heretics are segregated in a city of carved caves scaling-up the far-side of the mountain. Since the arrival of the humans, almost a century ago, the Khor civil war has torn the race into two. One side a religious oligarchy controlling their herd with stories of magick and wonder, the other a band of scientists, philosophers and other iconoclasts searching for the truth behind the myth. History and Overview The Khor evolved in more temperate climates than the one they now endure. When the grasses and grains were over-grazed their only option was a great migration through the desert (newly discovered archialogical site dubbed the ceramic desert confirms this journey.) Many lives were lost on the journey, including most elders and kids. The ones that labored through the scattered grazing patches and limited watering-holes, did so with the comfort promised to them by the shaman. Faith was born. The journey ended when the Khor experienced something they had never seen before: darkness. Grazing in a dusty field at the base of a mountain, a great shadow lurched toward the herd. As each Khor was veiled in darkness they looked toward the light's obstruction. Praised as a deity, the moon eclipsed the red sun marking the ground in shade. The umbra of the eclipse has since been worshipped as sacred ground. During the eclipse, it is said, a female gave birth to a son. The shaman announced it was a sign from the heavens and the boy was worshipped as a god incarnate. The mountain's great height awarded it special consideration due to its presumed proximity to the gods. The Khor took shelter in its cool caves. A monument to the child God-King was commissioned by the shaman and his new clerisy of disciples. Built with the sweat, blood and lives of the Khor faithful the summit complex was completed to please the gods and praise the young God-King. It is here where the king lived lavishly among his devoted Khor clerics. To this day the Khor elite, their newest puppet-king and their consecrated warriors remain housed in luxury as they oversee the blissfully ignorant herd. Due to the heliosynchronous orbit of Wreel around its host star, the eclipse is, by earth standards, a monthly occurance. This regularity gave the Khor the ability to track time, in-turn came math and science. Over centuries the industrious Khor bolstered their population to even greater numbers than before. The area had far fewer predators and far less competition for the vegetation. With the increased population came the need to expand their habitat. As the population grew so did the caves. The Khor carved like ants through the rocky terrain, discovering wells of fresh water. Generations later, infrastructure financed and overseen by the Dēch allowed the race to further increase their numbers by optimizing extraction of the drinking water. The Khor carved massive blocks from within the mountain for use in constructing the summit complex. The main quarry was carved into a spiral walkway to export the next layer of stone, the walls carved out into caves for the workers. That pit is still utilized today to house the herd - pejoratively refferred to as the marrow. From one spot at the depths of the pit a man could yell and be heard by the occupants of each small cave. It is unclear whether this was an accident or the engineer was exceptional to the point of genius. Either way the Khor clerics have used this pulpit to address the bulk of the herd for centuries. Today, in lieu of a shaman, a public address system echoes the status quo throughout the chamber during the waking-hours of the day. Sub-classes The Consecrated : Main article: The Consecrated The Consecrated are the military arm of the Khor clerisy. Outfitted with high-tech weaponry disquised in ornate ceramics and copper they oversee the Khor masses and protect the assets of the oligarchy. They have above-average PSI and average INT. Appearance The Consecrated have modified horns and wear long robes to cover their armor. Their horns are sanded down to narrow, bare spikes before they are carved with ornate patterns. The long robes are both a sign of rank and serve to hide the high-tech armor from the intentionally ignorant marrow. Zome : Main article: Zome The Zome - referred to as the insurgent by the Consecrated - are an intellectual group of outliers banished from the mountain by the Khor elite. They are seen as hostiles and have their travel regulated by documentation overseen by the Consortium. Insurgent Khor will never align themselves with the Consecrated or Marrow. Their advanced intellect provides them the ability to operate more hardware than their Khor counterparts. In lieu of referring to themselves with the same rhetoric of the Consortium and the puppet Khor the Insurgent have adopted the name Zome. Appearance The Insurgent embrace the technology and don't hide behind robes to sheild their high-tech EXO on the battlefield. The Insurgent have abandoned the cultural dress of the Khor so most do not don long ornamental beards or modify their twisted, vertical horns. Marrow : Main article: Marrow The term Marrow is used as a pejorative by the Consortium to describe the lower-class Khor. The term refers to bone marrow being the soft-tissue within the bones of a skeleton much like the Marrow is the soft tissue within the EXO. To keep the Marrow under the veil of mysticism, the Khor clerisy guide them like organic robots. In-battle they are blinded from their true purpose with goggles that display horrific propaganda. Driven by fear (a potent form of psionics) the Marrow are pawns in the battle for the increased wealth of the Khor elite. Appearance The Marrow wear opaque goggles when in battle. To the Marrow, these goggles project an augmented reality wherein their battlefield opponents appear to be demon-like magical creatures from the lore handed down by the clerics. They battle these demons with honor in the name of their God-King. Attribute Ranks Each sub-class has its advantages and disadvantages. A character with higher than average intellect typically has lower than average psionics. Secondary Attribute Ranks Category:Race Category:Khor